Hot times near Svalbard – Volcanic range discovered

Researchers have found a 1,500 km volcanic mountain chain hidden off the coast of Svalbard, which could soon break the surface to form a new island chain.

Dag Rune Olsen, rector of the University of Bergen, where the researchers are based, told The Local that the findings were like a “moon landing in the deep sea.”

“We probably know even less about the very deep seas and oceans then we know about the moon,” he said. The range extends from Jan Mayen island in the Greenland Sea to the Fram Strait between Svalbard and Greenland. It comprises hundreds of volcanos, some just 20m below the surface.

The new discovery comprises hundreds more volcanoes, some just 20m below the surface.

…

The ridge was first glimpsed in 2008, but this is the first time detailed mapping has been done.

“We have found volcanoes at such a shallow level and they could break the surface at any time and form a new island group,” Pedersen told VG newspaper.

“We have long known that Iceland has both volcanic activity and hot springs, but we thought that we did not have anything like that in Norway. But we do, it was only under water,” he added.

83 thoughts on “Hot times near Svalbard – Volcanic range discovered”

“We have found volcanoes at such a shallow level and they could break the surface at any time and form a new island group,” Pedersen told VG newspaper.
———————————–
Quickly to be drowned by rising sea level.

It should be affecting ocean currents right now. Some peaks are reportedly only 20 meters (a little more than 65 feet) below the surface. Island chains act like fences or vanes that redirect currents around them. They all serve as inclined planes that can lift deep currents upward to pass the barrier, which changes the near-surface water temperatures.

Unsurprisingly these are on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that stretches into the Arctic ocean to meet up with the volcano string found there.http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080626-arctic-volcano.html
Hmmm, first excess seismicity was noticed around 1999 on the Gakkel ridge. Lemme think, when did the ice loss go into overdrive in the Arctic?? Wasn’t that around 2000 according to NASA???
Hmm, didn’t the Greenland Galloping Glaciers start galloping in the same time period and some of them later found to be probably based on geothermal activity??
So we have ice above average on the Alaskan side of the Arctic Ocean away from all the volcanic activity and ice below average on the side with the volcanic activity.
NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! Couldn’t have ANYTHING to do with it!!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

You refer to Kolbeinsey Ridge which is too close to Iceland.
Also the Denmark Strait between Iceland and Greenland (“the DENMARK STRAIT Overflow Water (DSOW), the largest of the deep, overflow plumes,” “DENMARK STRAIT IS BOTTLENECK ON THE SUPERHIGHWAY IN THE OCEANS GLOBAL CIRCULATION
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution”). The depth is about 600m.
I don’t see references to a ridge between Kolbeinsey and Svalbard or to anything at 20m below sea level. Wiki has a little about a small island that won’t last much longer, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolbeinsey

This revelation could lead one to question the security of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a “secure seedbank” established in an abandoned coal mine at Svalbard in 1984. But then again, one could also question the security of any abandoned coal mine.

This is pretty interesting! There is a global seed vault built on the island of Svalbard because the theory is, it’s suppose to be cold and stable. I wonder how stable it is if a volcano is going to be growing in that area. LOL. I hope the seeds don’t all pop out of their shells and start growing.

My 1971 NatGeo Arctic Ocean floor map clearly shows these ridges–it calls them the Nansen Fracture zone and Greenland Fracture zone. It doesn’t identify them as volcanic, but the existence of the ridges have been long known. I think you can view the map at maps.com.

Kev-in-Uk says:
August 2, 2013 at 9:46 am
If I were to sit there in the area waiting patiently on my boat for some land to surface- could I claim an ‘island’ for myself – would it be classed as a new territory/land? just wondering aloud……
————–
I think you need to plant a flag…, do you have you one ready ?
No wonder sea level is rising, with all these intrusions.

Kev-in-Uk says: @ August 2, 2013 at 9:46 am
If I were to sit there in the area waiting patiently on my boat for some land to surface- could I claim an ‘island’ for myself – would it be classed as a new territory/land? just wondering aloud……
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
You mean like this? http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/video-a-new-island-is/60017

tadchem says:
August 2, 2013 at 10:58 am
This revelation could lead one to question the security of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a “secure seedbank” established in an abandoned coal mine at Svalbard in 1984. But then again, one could also question the security of any abandoned coal mine.
—————-
Good point, really good point.

So who has been asleep at the switch, that this apparently prominent feature, so close to Svalbard,
has remained undetected until now; Except apparently by Google ??
So how recently, do they figure this thing started to form, and when does the water breaking ceremony begin ??
Is this fast or slow compared to the rate of building of Hawaiian Islands ??

What are the implications on arctic sea ice? Either due to heat release, or the upwelling of 4C water due to the new ridge, this sucker is right where we see the highest impact to sea ice loss. Now there is a shrinkage of arctic sea ice due to other factors, for sure, but this definitely has an impact. What is that impact? By the way, if they want to find another volcano, look off of Thule, Greenland. Sea ice extends far south from that latitude, but mysteriously this area remains ice-free for most of the winter.

To follow on with Peter from MD’s comment…
We really have no idea of the geological activity going on under the world’s oceans, new islands forming below the surface, ridges forming, etc. Could this activity be responsible for a significant percentage of sea level change?

kuhnkat says:
August 2, 2013 at 10:11 am
Unsurprisingly these are on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that stretches into the Arctic ocean to meet up with the volcano string found there.http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080626-arctic-volcano.html
Hmmm, first excess seismicity was noticed around 1999 on the Gakkel ridge. Lemme think, when did the ice loss go into overdrive in the Arctic?? Wasn’t that around 2000 according to NASA???
Hmm, didn’t the Greenland Galloping Glaciers start galloping in the same time period and some of them later found to be probably based on geothermal activity??
So we have ice above average on the Alaskan side of the Arctic Ocean away from all the volcanic activity and ice below average on the side with the volcanic activity.
Sounds like a reasonable hypothesis to me, we need no further evidence and certainly don’t need proof.

Kev-in-Uk says: @ August 2, 2013 at 9:46 am “If I were to sit there in the area waiting patiently on my boat for some land to surface- could I claim an ‘island’ for myself – would it be classed as a new territory/land?”
Interesting question. The range is about equidistant between mainland Norway and the eastern coast of Greenland (which is a part of the Kindom of Denmark) and well within the 200 mile “exclusive economic zone” of both countries. The ridge is arguably the point of separation between the Sea of Greenland and the Sea of Norway, though you could equally-well argue that the point of separation is the mid-line between the two coasts. At the south end of the ridge is the island of Jan Mayen, an uninhabited bit of tundra administered by Norway. At the north end is Svalbard, a larger and inhabited island also administered by Norway.
Denmark might be able to make a claim but anyone else would have to overcome the assumption of proximity from Norway’s current lands. If you did, however, you would still have to gather sufficient population and power to be recognized as an independent country. Hard to do when a single Coast Guard cutter probably has enough firepower to sink your “country” back under the waves…

Note: The Norwegian version of this text speaks about the activity of those volcanoes and 1200° C magma I don’t know why that information isn’t included in the English version.
As far as I can see:
-hundreds of volcanos and numerous hydrothermal vents
-from 20 to 2500 meters deep down
-along a 1500 km volcanic ridge
-the water coming out has a temperature of 300-400 degrees celsius

To JamesD:
You wrote: “…Either due to heat release, or the upwelling of 4C water due to the new ridge, this sucker is right where we see the highest impact to sea ice loss….”
Not quite, but if you look at the NSIDC sea ice with anomaly page,http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/N_bm_extent_hires.png
that notch in the sea ice anomaly NE of Greenland clearly corresponds to the postion
of this volcanic activity. In addition, another post on WUWT contains comments
linking Russian activity (oil spills and the like) with outflow from the huge Siberian rivers:http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/08/02/observations-from-the-wuwt-sea-ice-page/
and this IS where the largest visible anomaly in the sea ice shows.
Is it possible that virtually all of the recent Arctic sea ice loss could be attributed to
the volcanic activity and the Russian pollution?

20 metres below sea level.
That is pretty shallow water.
Ships with a 21 metre draft can transit the English Channel [with some care!] at any state of a normal tide.
Vale operate a class – eventually over thirty – of bulk carriers with a 23 metre load draft.
Borrow one of them, fit it with a decent Coastguard cutter repellent system, sail it up there – and there’s your new nation! Maybe.
Randall_G says:
August 2, 2013 at 11:58 am
“,,, which could soon break the surface to form a new island chain.”
How soon is “soon”? Like next Thursday soon, or geologic time scale soon, which could be the next 5000 years.
My thought – not worth the dignity of a ‘guess’ – is more likely the latter, but volcanism is not easy to predict, and it could do a Surtsey. Next Saturday. But I wouldn’t bet on that.
Auto

August 2, 2013 at 10:58 am
This revelation could lead one to question the security of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a “secure seedbank” established in an abandoned coal mine at Svalbard in 1984. But then again, one could also question the security of any abandoned coal mine.
=====================
If we are waiting “geologicly speaking” for the next era of glaciation to start, why are we storing anything in the arctic?

But, but, buuuuuttttt, BUT!!!…. All the expert Climate Scientists® have repeatedly assured us that they in fact know beyond-doubt-unquestionably-not-even-worth-debating (and besides, there’s a consensus, don’t you know?) exactly how much CO2 underseas volcanoes add to ocean CO2 levels, ocean acidification and atmospheric CO2 levels!
So clearly these new volcanoes and this phony “discovery” clearly doesn’t really exist, and are just the Big Oil funded flat earth (I’d use the “D” word, but it’s not allowed 😉 ) skeptics way of trying to lie to everyone yet again, because they are all just selfish and hate all children, puppies, and babies, and and and, well, children and all!
(do I really need to add the “/massive sarc” tag to this one folks? {G})

Ya know, any geology student knows that Iceland itself is a product of volcanic activity from the Mid Atlantic Ridge, a fracture zone that demarks an upwelling convection cell in the mantle that stretches from north of Iceland all the way down between Africa and South America. This upwelling is newly created seafloor flowing out of the fracture zone east and west and is the cause of Continental Drift itself. This new sea floor material forces the continents on either side of the Atlantic to raft away from each other. This also causes the North and South America’s western margins to ride up over the Pacific “plate” pushing the Pacific plate edges down under the Americas western margins, buckling up the Cordillera and the Andes and creating vocanism in the Pacific. How come all the surprise?

Mike Rossander says:
August 2, 2013 at 1:36 pm
…”Hard to do when a single Coast Guard cutter probably has enough firepower to sink your “country” back under the waves…”
—————–
That is why submarines were invented.

If sun light is only capable of penetrating to a depth of 300 meters, or so, why is it possible to view the sea floor topography and mid-oceanic ridges in detail, or any detail?

Presumably the “detailed mapping” include sonar imaging from underwater systems.
One of the less detailed mapping techniques, perhaps the source of the Google maps images, is satellite sea-level topography. Given the rock is denser than water, the seafloor shows up as a inverted surface “reflection” that can be measured by satellites.
See http://topex.ucsd.edu/marine_topo/

As this is on the Mid Atlantic ridge (clearly shown on imagery associated with this post), why is anyone surprised that there is “volcanic mountain chain” here ?? Only those that failed Geology 101 should be surprised …. and I am guessing that would mostly be politicians & bureaucrats who the authors of the original study would like additional funding from (Look – we discovered a new volcanic mountain chain – give us more money to study it).
It’s really a sad state of affairs this represented as anything new but it is an insight to how modern science is done – alarmism to get further research funding & done via press release to try to get a greater public audience & support for their cause. This the reason all science, not just climate science. is loosing all credibility.
As a scientist & a geologist, the who whole thing makes me sick.

“Professor Rolf Birger Pedersen, Centre Manager of the Centre for Geobiology at the University of Bergen says: that it is only a matter of time before the massive volcanic mountain chain breaks the surface.
He confirmes that there are active volcanoes, and that they have registered CO2 gas comimg out of them. He expects that the volcano can break the surface at the next volcanic eruption.
In the future, he believes that the volcano could affect the mainland too.
– We expect that, and that it can cause ash deposition in Norway, as we have seen earlier by volcanic eruptions such as on Jan Mayen.”
“- About 50 new species is associated with these areas, Pedersen says to Dagbladet.
These new species has created its own peculiar ecosystem around the so-called chimneys on the bottom. These sizzling springs spewing 320 degrees hot water, full of minerals and chemicals. Unlike other familiar and beloved wildlife, these new species that scientists have discovered does not rely on the sun to gain energy, but lives on the substance that comes out of the smokestacks.” – Dagbladet http://m.db.no/2013/08/01/nyheter/innenriks/forskning/vulkan/28490961/?www=1

Scientists had previously thought of the oceans as being a carbon sink, says O’Hanlon. This reverses that belief, changing the oceans into a carbon source.
This is what I’ve been saying all along. “We have it backwards: Rising CO2 levels don’t cause warmer seas, warmer seas cause higher CO2 levels. (“Not by Fire but by Ice,” p. 192)http://www.iceagenow.com/Underwater_volcanoes_Bake_Sediments-Add_to_Warming.htm

it takes roughly a cubic meter of 1200 C lava to melt ten cubic meters of ice , but then, the midinght sun deposits the same amount of heat per square meter in about a month.
Since the volume of the Arctic ocaen is ~five orders of magntiude larger than the average annual eruptive volume of the ridge, it really doesn’t signify.

Russel,
You are aware of hot springs and other geothermal sources that heat water 24×7 without flowing lava??? You are aware of hydrothermal vent systems that run along the oceanic ridges and most of the plate conjunctions along with other areas?? While lava flows may be intermittent and rare, the vents are continuous with temps as high as 400c.

Kev-in-Uk says:
August 2, 2013 at 9:46 am
If I were to sit there in the area waiting patiently on my boat for some land to surface- could I claim an ‘island’ for myself – would it be classed as a new territory/land? just wondering aloud……
After about ten minutes another guy in a boat would turn up and either tell you that you owe tax on your new island or he can help you claim large grants to fight rising sea levels!!!!
I’m with DaveF you’d have to call it “Craggy Island”
James Bull

Russel is very clever, not. Your figures do not compute.
Plus you said
Quote
Since the volume of the Arctic ocaen is ~five orders of magntiude larger than the average annual eruptive volume of the ridge, it really doesn’t signify.
Unquote
For starters “what is the annual eruptive volume of the ridge?”, gen that not only was it unknown, neither was the fact that is was not a single eruption but hundreds?
No need either to consider the Arctic but the local area for heating effects.
Seems you making up numbers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nothing new here, this group is part of the oceanic ridge system where new ocean crust is being made. All part of plate tectonics and our dynamic earth.
And yes the local ocean currents will have been modified already. The ridge system is some 2.5Km below the surface so these have been building for thousands/millions of years depending on the volcanic activity level.

I don’t have any more data than anyone else, but we can do some sums. Hopefully people can correct me…
Wikipedia says the Gulf Stream delivers 1.4X10^15 watts. Allowing for the split of the canary current, radiative losses and a large margin of error to a round number, say 5X10^14 Watts in the vicinity of Svalbard.
a Hydrothermal Vent at 400C spewing at 1m/s delivers roughly1X400X4.2X10^6 watts per m^2 of vent. That works out to 1.7X10^9 Watts/m^2.
So the amount of heat delivered by Volcanism is significant in as far as the total vent area compares to 5X10^14/(1.7*10^9) =5X10^5/1.7~=300000m^2.
So 300m^2 of vent changes the heat content of the current by 0.1%. Probably significant and much more than I expected. The wild guesses above are almost certainly wrong, but the situation really is very interesting! Given Hundreds of volcanoes and ‘numerous’ vents, there is plenty of scope for various parameters to be lower and still see some effect.

Kev-in-Uk says: “If I were to sit there in the area waiting patiently on my boat for some land to surface- could I claim an ‘island’ for myself – would it be classed as a new territory/land? just wondering aloud……”
The time and money would be better invested in a timeshare in some warmer latitude, Kev. And it just so happens, I’d be willing to sell you my unit in Mt. Pinatubo Estates, a tropical paradise high above the blue waters of the Western Pacific…

kuhnkat sayshttp://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080626-arctic-volcano.html
Hmmm, first excess seismicity was noticed around 1999 on the Gakkel ridge. Lemme think, when did the ice loss go into overdrive in the Arctic?? Wasn’t that around 2000 according to NASA???
===
Notable warming of N. Atl SST and change in pattern of Arctic ice area started around 1997. Compared to the usual cycles there appears to have been a significant and rapid increase in SST around 1997-99 with a lesser drift until 2007.
Rate of change in sea ice area seems to have followed that with the main negative rate of change (ice loss) occuring between 1997 and 2007:http://climategrog.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=160

Greg,
“Notable warming of N. Atl SST and change in pattern of Arctic ice area started around 1997. Compared to the usual cycles there appears to have been a significant and rapid increase in SST around 1997-99 with a lesser drift until 2007.
Rate of change in sea ice area seems to have followed that with the main negative rate of change (ice loss) occuring between 1997 and 2007:http://climategrog.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=160”
So, why don’t you also tell me about the sun heating the earth??
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I do appreciate you NOT mentioning that CO2 continues to rise!!

Ric Werme says:
August 2, 2013 at 6:42 pm
“One of the less detailed mapping techniques, perhaps the source of the Google maps images, is satellite sea-level topography. Given the rock is denser than water, the seafloor shows up as a inverted surface “reflection” that can be measured by satellites.”
Appreciate the link, however I’ve noted satellite photos of night falling on eastern Europe which included the mid-Atlantic ridge still sunlit and visable at depth. I assumed that was just a plain vanilla photograph. Without actual knowledge of that photo/survey method, I still see problems with the interpretation.

Oh, and Greg, are you gonna tell me that the galloping glaciers are based on ocean cycles?? I might have to argue with you.

They apparently galloped even faster in the 1930’s long before man was generating any significant amount of CO2: 1930s photos show Greenland glaciers retreating faster than today
They galloped a heck of a lot faster coming out of the last ice age, and I know it was all the SUV’s and other man made causes of CO2 increase that resulted in the end of the ice age, right?
Apparently Greenland’s glaciers regularly gallop about every 150 years. Think it was AGW 150 years ago too? http://www.livescience.com/28399-clouds-greenland-ice-melt.html
And, oops, maybe we don’t even have a good estimate on just how fast places like Greenland are even melting – at least it turns out that they were significantly overestimating the melt rate: Greenland ice melt overestimated due to satellite data algorithm issue
And gee, amazing, turns out confounding factors that weren’t considered are probably responsible for a good bit of the melting that is occurring, rather than global warming: Remember that ‘unprecedented’ Greenland ice sheet surface melt that was allegedly caused by global warming? Never mind
And to copy a post I did some time ago: If Greenland is loosing all this ice over the past 30+ years, I’d dearly love to know how they explain the Glacier Girl.
For those here who might be unfamiliar, it’s easy to find the story online, and it’s truly fascinating. Essentially back during WWII, a small squadron of fighter planes had to ditch on Greenland. On the glaciers. About 50 years later, they went back and dug down through about 268 feet of ice to get to one of the P-38 fighters. They took her apart down in the hole, lifted her out piece by piece, Then they moved her to a more conducive location, put her back together and flew her.
Soooooo, to the researchers and scientists who think there’s been so much global warming causing huge ice melts…. just how the heck did a plane on the surface wind up buried under 268 ft. of snow and ice accumulated over those 50 years, during which so much of this global warming occurred????!!

Can surface (and atmospheric) temperatures trigger something from below the ground? I know that, where I live (California), we hear all the time about ‘earthquake weather’, and how a particular type of weather could trigger an earthquake. I have no idea if this has any basis in science or even how it could possibly be true, but just thought I’d throw it here and see if I can get some clarification. If this is a stupid question (and it even sounds pretty stupid to me), please feel free not to answer. Thanks much.

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